A demo in Kyiv last November (AFP)
22 November 2005 -- Ukraine today marks the first anniversary of mass protests that toppled the old regime and led to the election of President Viktor Yushchenko.

The mass demonstrations last November brought hundreds of thousands of people to Kyiv's streets to protest election fraud, marking the start of what came to be known as the Orange Revolution.

Supporters of Yushchenko have already started converging on Kyiv's main Independence Square ahead of the festivities later today. The celebrations were slated to include speeches by Yushchenko, and Yuliya Tymoshenko, a one-time Orange Revolution ally and now a political competitor.

The Bratstvo (Brotherhood) party -- a radical pro-Russian opposition party -- plans to hold an unsanctioned protest rally on another Kyiv square today, saying that the official festivities were aimed at making Ukrainians forget high prices and everyday hardships.

(Interfax)

The Orange Revolution

An archive of RFE/RL's reporting and analysis on Ukraine's Orange Revolution.

REVOLUTION IN THE AIR: Listen to an audio portrait of the Orange Revolution from RFE/RL's archives.Real AudioWindows Media